Honoring Linda Anne Eastman, A Pioneering Librarian

Melissa Carr (00:00):
"Why not a woman in enlightened Cleveland?"

Laura Maylene Walter (00:02):
I love that. "Why Not a woman in enlightened Cleveland?"

Laura Maylene Walter (00:08):
Welcome to Page Count, presented by the Ohio Center for the Book at Cleveland Public Library. This podcast celebrates authors, illustrators, librarians, booksellers, literary advocates, and readers in and from the state of Ohio. I'm your host, Laura Maylene Walter, the Ohio Center for the Book Fellow and author of the novel BODY OF STARS.

Laura Maylene Walter (00:31):
Today, I'm joined by Melissa Carr, the Archivist here at Cleveland Public Library. If you're listening to this on the day we're posting, May 6, then you are joining us in celebrating the 100th anniversary of our Main Library building in downtown Cleveland. The Main Library opened its doors to the public on May 6, 1925, a full century ago. We're going to celebrate that milestone by taking a step back into history to discuss pioneering librarian Linda Anne Eastman—how she changed and inspired our library, the city of Cleveland, the librarian profession itself, and maybe the two of us personally, as well. Melissa, welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much for being here.

Melissa Carr (01:17):
Laura, it's such an honor to be here. Thank you.

Laura Maylene Walter (01:20):
Thanks for joining us, and I think we should just be very transparent with our listeners that I think you and I both feel a little bit overwhelmed or intimidated by our subject today. Because there's so much material, so much to admire and talk about Linda Eastman, that we know we won't cover everything. And you could have spent three years in the archives digging up everything about her. So we'll just get that out there that we're going to do our best. We're very excited to talk about Linda Eastman, but we'll just see how it goes.

Melissa Carr (01:48):
Great. Thank you.

Laura Maylene Walter (01:49):
All right, well, Melissa, why don't we just start with the basics. For anyone who isn't familiar with who Linda Eastman was, tell us: Who was this woman, and why are we devoting this time to talking about her today?

Melissa Carr (02:01):
Linda Eastman was our fourth chief librarian of Cleveland Public Library. She was, and is, one of the most influential and beloved figures in our library's history. She devoted her life to providing library service to everyone in the city of Cleveland and in the county. And she worked tirelessly for 46 years, 20 of which were as our librarian. She joined the Library as an apprentice in 1892, when she was 25 years old, and by the time she retired in 1938, at age 71, she was leading a staff of almost 1,200 with a collection of over 2 million volumes. Cleveland Public Library was recognized throughout the world during her tenure as one of the best library systems in existence, and much of that credit goes to Linda Eastman.

Laura Maylene Walter (02:57):
She has done so much, and we'll get into a little bit of it today, really an impressive woman with a huge career that just did so much for this library and for the librarian profession. Let's talk about how she first came to Cleveland Public Library. What was her origin story? The director at the time was William Howard Brett, another very famous librarian. So tell us about how she first came to meet him.

Melissa Carr (03:22):
She came to Cleveland as a little girl at age seven, and she went to public schools here and she graduated from West High School. During her time there as a high school student, she came to the Library, which that time was in the old Central High School building at East Ninth and Euclid. And she was coming for a book that was required for one of her classes. And I wish we knew what book or what class. So this would've been in about, I think between Brett started in 1894 and she graduated in 1895, but would've been a point during those two years. So at that time when you went into the Library, there was a tall counter where patrons would go up and make their requests in writing to one of the assistants behind the desk. Patrons of any age couldn't go directly up to the bookshelves and choose the books for themselves.

Melissa Carr (04:20):
She went up to the counter and gave the assistant a note about the book that she wanted, and the assistant went to the back and came back and said, you know, that the title isn't here. But Brett, who was our chief librarian at the time, he started 1984, he overheard this and he said something like, "well, Miss, if you care to wait 15 or 20 minutes, I will have someone go out and pick up a new copy of the book for you." And she was absolutely delighted at this. And sure enough, some time later, someone came back with the brand new copy of the book that he had sent, you know, to a bookstore to buy a new copy. And she thought, you know, maybe he knew that they needed another copy of this, but she was just so surprised and enchanted that someone overheard this and and cared to provide her this service.

Laura Maylene Walter (05:14):
It is so amazing to think of the 1800s, she walks into the Library, needs a book, and they just run out and buy it for her. It also made me think of how the bookstores must have been so different back then too, that they knew the book would be there <laugh>, that they could purchase it and bring it right back.

Melissa Carr (05:28):
And there were so many bookstores all over downtown Cleveland and elsewhere.

Laura Maylene Walter (05:32):
Yeah, yeah. Hmm. Well, <laugh> we'll get into more later I think, about how much things have changed. But that was how she first came to meet Brett and to see maybe the power of what the Library could do in terms of serving people who, who need it, which is really great. How does she come to work at the Library?

Melissa Carr (05:51):
I think she graduated at the top of her class. She was chosen to give the commencement speech. So she did very well in school and she went into teaching. She did love children and you know, was very devoted to meeting their educational and information needs and serving them in that way. But I did read at one point later that she said she didn't think that she was a natural teacher, although she was very skilled. But after she graduated, she spent seven years teaching in the elementary schools in Cleveland. And her classroom was not the first, it was the second. The first was a friend of hers to have Brett and Cleveland Public Library install a classroom library in her, I think, fourth grade classroom, but I only saw that mentioned once, I'm not sure. I'm assuming she met Brett again and she jumped at the chance after learning about this opportunity to have a classroom library.

Melissa Carr (06:51):
So here's something that she wrote in 1914. So she spent seven years teaching and then she later wrote: "I found," she said, "that the influence of a book was often far greater than that of the lesson taught in the classroom, and that the impression made by the reading of a book was often more far reaching and deeper than the impression made by the lesson itself. And so I came to feel that the Library was the place where I wanted to work." She also had said what she didn't like about teaching was that for those students who weren't engaged and excited, you know, she didn't like that she was in a way forcing them to be a part of the lesson. And she thought with books she could reach those students who were interested and offer them things that they didn't yet know they were interested in.

Laura Maylene Walter (07:41):
So she started working at the Library in 1892. Let's talk money for a second because <laugh> I found one of the materials we both looked at was this excellent dissertation written for a Kent State Master of Arts by Alice Edwards Wright in 1952 called "Linda A. Eastman, Pioneer in Librarianship." And the great thing about this dissertation is that in addition to a lot of research that the author did on Linda Eastman, Linda Eastman was still alive at the time. So she had personal interviews with Linda Eastman, which I think really adds a lot to it. But I learned that when she went to the Library in 1892, she was making 12 and a half cents an hour, which I couldn't even fully convert into today's amount because I don't think the inflation calculator goes back that far to 1892 <laugh>. But needless to say that apparently she was pitied by her friends. She is 25 years old and pitied for like taking that kind of pay cut I guess to work at the Library. So clearly she wasn't in it for the money. This was a calling in some respects, but money was sort of tied into her one year that she did leave the Library. Can you tell us a bit about that? About how she briefly left us here in Cleveland?

Melissa Carr (08:56):
Yes. Well actually could I just mention that she was discouraged from leaving her career in teaching for which she was successful and relatively well paid for what she was doing compared with her library work. And Brett actually discouraged her from joining the Library and leaving her career because she was paid so little. So she started at the Library, at our library in 1892 and she did advance, she was assigned to work at our first branch, the west side branch. And then in 1894 when our Miles Park branch opened, which was second branch, she was made head librarian of that branch. But she did go to the Dayton Public Library for a year between 1895 and 1896.

Laura Maylene Walter (09:43):
I found a letter yes, in the materials that you shared, a letter when she was working at Dayton that she sent to Brett. So apparently Brett was trying to get her to come back to Cleveland Public Library and you know, they wanted her at Dayton and he wanted her in Cleveland and she was sticking up for herself in terms of the salary. I mean clearly this isn't a profession she was in for the money, but I think she was being very practical and saying that the money would be so low in Cleveland that it wouldn't be wise for her to go back. And that her colleagues at Dayton agreed that maybe she shouldn't leave unless Cleveland could make her an offer she couldn't refuse. So what can you tell us about that and do you know, she did come back to Cleveland, so I assume they gave her more money, but I'm curious how that worked out.

Melissa Carr (10:28):
Yes. So she had been offered the position of vice librarian and head cataloger at Dayton. I don't actually know what her salary was, but clearly it was more than what she was being given in Cleveland. And I have a copy of that letter we have since she and Brett were so wonderful about keeping papers of which we have in the archives now. So I have that letter and I love that she wrote in closing telling him that, you know, was going to be difficult for her to take the position she wrote. I think I could have put into the Cleveland work more than anywhere else that interest, which is not paid for in dollars and cents, but which sometimes counts for more than the work which is paid for. She was devoted to the profession I think from the beginning. And she did later in her later years, maybe in her nineties, she did say if she had it to choose all over again, she absolutely would've become a librarian. Also, she wrote Trip Brett in 1892. I'm willing to begin at the bottom and run my risk in working up for the sake of engaging in an occupation toward which I have long felt an inclination, but I think she also knew her strengths and was able in her very modest, humble way to stand up for yourself. She came back to Cleveland at some point in 1896 and was given the appointment of Vice Librarian.

Laura Maylene Walter (11:54):
Yeah, so Brett did something right and got her back.

Laura Maylene Walter (11:58):
So that kicked off years of a really, really solid working relationship between Brett and Eastman. Can you just tell us a little bit about maybe some of the things they accomplished in those years or how they worked together? How would you characterize their working relationship?

Melissa Carr (12:16):
We actually have a whole lot of correspondence and other documentation that describes their incredible working relationship. I think they were very much peers and he relied on her and trusted her fully. It seems like from their earliest time together, I think it was 22 years that she served as his Vice Librarian. When she first joined the Library, she was given a demanding written exam which tested applicants on seven fields, literature, history, arithmetic, geography, grammar, spelling and penmanship. And she scored a 98%. So let me read you a quote. We have I gathered a few quotes from people that knew and worked with both of them. Mary Eileen Ahern who was the editor of Public Libraries Magazine, wrote in 1918: "Ms. Eastman has demonstrated time and again her ability to carry on in Mr. Brett's absence. I have heard him say many times, everything goes on all right as long as Ms. Eastman is at the helm." Another colleague said that he would often say, "That's all right, Ms. Eastman is there." So she was incredibly gifted in organizing and I think she handled much of the detail of their very complicated and broad work.

Laura Maylene Walter (13:43):
She and Brett worked together for over 20 years, a really great working relationship. They were building Cleveland Public Library to be a really standout library in the country, if not the world. Brett instituted the open shelf policy, which allowed patrons to select books themselves off the shelf, which is something we all take for granted today. But back then with libraries it wasn't like that. People would have to request the book from the librarian or the library worker. So they worked together really well. Then in 1918 everything changed. They were heavily involved in planning Main Library, which is the Main Library in downtown Cleveland on Superior Avenue that we all know here in Cleveland. They are planning at this time. Can you tell us what tragically happens?

Melissa Carr (14:32):
So at that time in 1918, our Main Library, which hadn't been built at the time, our Main Library was in what was then the Kinney and Levan department store, which is today Public Square, at Euclid and 14th. Eastman and William Howard Brett had left the building. They had been at a meeting he had some of the drawings, architectural drawings of our Main Library in his arms. And the two of them were waiting in a safety zone for the streetcar and tragically he was killed by a drunk driver who came speeding through the intersection. I mean, he was so beloved in Cleveland as as she was too, that the whole city went into mourning.

Laura Maylene Walter (15:25):
It was just really traumatic that they were together walking on the street and he had the blueprints and was struck. And so she witnessed the whole thing. And a number of years ago, before you were in the Archives at Cleveland Public Library, I researched at one point the correspondence to Linda Eastman about Brett's death. And it was just letters from all over the world really of librarians and well-known people who just respected Brett so much and they sent her their condolences. So it was a horrible thing that happened and that the Library and everyone lost Brett. So now the Library is without the Chief Librarian, the position today we would consider the director. I mean let's talk about it. So Linda Eastman had been working as the vice librarian right under that position for years and was so well respected. She was a woman and at that time no woman had led a library of that size. And in fact in 1918 she couldn't even vote in a federal election. You know, that didn't happen in Ohio until 1919. The first federal election she could vote in was in 1920. So let's talk a bit about, was it at all controversial to give her this position? How did she end up becoming the head of the library system?

Melissa Carr (16:41):
It was not a position that she applied for. And she had said previously that it wasn't a role that she would seek out, but because she was woman at that time, it was both controversial, a huge thing. And at the same time, as far as I can tell, with a considerable amount of documentation, Clevelanders and library people in Cleveland and across the country were absolutely unanimous in their support for her. I have a letter here from a Catholic pastor who wrote to our board of trustees in December of 1918. So it was in, it was in August 1918 that Brett was killed. And in December this figure wrote to our board: "I am quite confident that if she were a man, there would be little doubt that she would be appointed to succeed Mr. Brett. Why not a woman in enlightened Cleveland?"

Laura Maylene Walter (17:49):
I love that. "Why Not a woman in enlightened Cleveland?" Yeah, perfect.

Melissa Carr (17:53):
Yes. And at that time, Cleveland was a very progressive city in many ways. So the board received tremendous support. We also received petitions. We have hundreds of signatures from Clevelanders in her support and all sorts of people you know, in town and in libraries across the country.

Laura Maylene Walter (18:15):
I mean also we have to remember that at the time Cleveland was, was it the fifth or sixth largest city in the country? Like Cleveland had a more prominent role than perhaps it does now. So this was a big deal. Cleveland Public Library was a pioneering library and the fact that she became the first woman of a library system of this size in a city to be the head of it, yeah.

Melissa Carr (18:37):
Yes. Cleveland for a number of reasons was very significant in the history of libraries. We had a number of firsts in the library world. We were the first metropolitan library of the size to open our shelves, which you mentioned, to the public. The design of our main building, which Eastman also worked on with Brett into individual departments subject departments as opposed to having one central room and central stack area made things much more efficient for patrons and became the model. So a lot of these initiatives became the, the standard in libraries across the country. So we were a prominent and are a prominent organization around the world.

Laura Maylene Walter (19:27):
Okay, so now she is the Chief Librarian a position she would hold for, was it 20 years?

Melissa Carr (19:33):
Yes, 20 years.

Laura Maylene Walter (19:35):
And she did so much. So we won't be able to get into all of it in detail because we'll be sitting here talking for four hours and no one needs that, including us. But let's hit just some of the broad highlights of some of the big areas that she was a leading voice, a leading librarian in. And Melissa is frantically running over to her many, many sheets of paper of research, because I really gave you a task on this one. Okay. So let's talk about some of her, her initiatives.

Melissa Carr (20:05):
Okay. So throughout her career she would say that her most favorite work that she did was her service to the blind. Cleveland was not the first to have library services for the blind, but we were an early participant and she hosted reading groups. She began a collection of materials in braille. She was passionate about her work with the blind throughout her career. She first, in 1897, just after she had come back from Dayton, organized a club for blind people where they got to listen to books as volunteers read aloud to them. And then in 1903 she began instruction in braille.

Laura Maylene Walter (20:50):
You and I were just talking about this the other day, how at the time those services were especially needed because today, you know, we have audiobooks all over the place and you can have your TV read to you and narrate things. So for people with vision impairment today, there are more options. And back then I would imagine, especially when reading was such a part of the culture <laugh> and such a part of everyone's lives to either be blind or lose your vision would have been so isolating and quite daunting. And so for her work to help build up these services was really powerful. And I will say I learned, I mean, I learned a lot while looking into her, but I didn't know what moon print or moon type was. And I suppose our library had some of that where it's a different kind of braille basically where the letters are, it's like raised large kind of simplified letters you can touch. So for someone who did read and then lost their vision, they could maybe feel the letter. So I just thought that was interesting.

Melissa Carr (21:50):
Very neat. Yes.

Laura Maylene Walter (21:52):
So she worked with the blind. What were some other areas that she made a lot of progress in?

Melissa Carr (21:57):
She was also very devoted to services for children. She started our story hours, let's see, she was the one who first conceived of the notion of having a children's room in the library where there would be low shelves and small tables and chairs,and children's pictures on the walls.

Laura Maylene Walter (22:16):
Correct me if I'm wrong, because everything I've read is now swirling through my brain, but the Library at one point was located in the old Board of Education, is that right? And I have this image of children lined up on Saturdays to go in and some of the adults apparently were upset that the kids like there are so many kids taking up the room. I don't know. And that also inspired like to have a separate area for the children and make sure they get the services they need. Yeah.

Melissa Carr (22:43):
Yes. You have such a good memory. Yes, you're right. I read that too, that they were lined up around the block.

Laura Maylene Walter (22:49):
Right, right. And apparently very orderly. It just made me think of, I don't know, I just imagine that like it's a Saturday and kids, they want to get in there, they want to get access to books, which is entertainment for them and information and yeah, just a different world.

Melissa Carr (23:05):
A very different time. She also started, initiated help start our service to the homebound people in hospitals and institutions. And I think what you said about the blind at that time probably is similar to what many people who were homebound or in hospitals or institutions experienced as well where they, you know, things weren't accessible in so many ways like they are now. We have so many testimonials from patients at hospitals, people who were confined to a wheelchair and couldn't leave their house. You know, she and the Library really brought such wonder and light into their lives with their visits and the reading materials.

Laura Maylene Walter (23:55):
So services for adults in general and reaching people who need it most. So at the time, you know, Cleveland had immigrants coming in from other countries who maybe they didn't know English or had to learn English. In 1913, so when she was still Vice Librarian, 12.7% of the books coming into the Library were in another language. And so it was a way to, you know, still people, if they can't read English, they could still be connected to the world in this way. And it helped bridge people's former lives and language to the new lives that they had here in Cleveland. But also for people who worked in factories. We had some library stations and factories in 1904 at the West Side branch, Eastman gave a talk to 200 young women who were employed in the neighborhood dry goods stores. And she was showing them like what the Library could do for their lives and how if they could make use of the Library, how that could transform their lives. And so these are just so important when you think about at the time, making people aware of these free services that can open up new worlds for them. It's just really powerful, I think.

Melissa Carr (25:05):
Yeah. Yeah. And it was really her singular goal to bring the Library and library materials to everyone in the city of Cleveland.

Laura Maylene Walter (25:16):
She just worked tirelessly. It sounds like <laugh> that she didn't have any, any time off. Do you have any insight into what, what her working life was like and also just what was the culture of librarianship at the time? It seems like it was more of a calling for her than just a nine to five job. Like she was really devoted to this position.

Melissa Carr (25:36):
So at the time, librarians worked longer hours than say, teachers. She hardly ever wrote about herself. But we do have one article that she was asked to write for a magazine called the Clevelander in 19...she was asked to write it in 1926. The title she chose for the article was "At Your Service, Gentleman," and her plan was to write about all the resources that Cleveland Public Library has for businessmen. And she had, you know, organized her outline in her head and then she got a phone call from the editor of the Clevelander saying, well, they decided on a better subject for her article, which he had said: "We think the most interesting thing you could tell us is what you yourself read and why." She did not love this idea <laugh>. She didn't tell him. And she went on to write the article. She did write a little bit about, there are little pieces you can gather about what her life was like. She's writing about the reading that she actually does for the Library, which she reads a lot of, or she read a lot of reviews of books and also a lot of reports about new book reviews. She wrote, "When the new books arrive, they must all be examined in the light of the reviews. Dipping into new books is fascinating work indeed. Even though one frequently has to handle 200 or 300 volumes in one evening and take a taxi home at midnight." Yes, I think she worked incredibly hard for her whole career. Many hours.

Laura Maylene Walter (27:17):
I love to think of Linda Eastman in a taxi at midnight after working like a 15-hour day or something and heading home in the streets of Cleveland. I just love that. It makes me happy.

Melissa Carr (27:28):
Yes, I think normally she took the streetcar. The house where she lived with her brother and sister is still there on East 92nd or 82nd Street, I think it's 82nd Street.

Laura Maylene Walter (27:40):
Well, what do we know about her personal life? You mentioned that she lived with her siblings. What can you tell us about what her life was like outside of the Library? As much as we know.

Melissa Carr (27:50):
We do know that she loved books, obviously <laugh>, but she did. I love this quote that she referenced in an article in the PLAIN DEALER that she wrote in 1919. The quote is, "'You see,' says Christopher Morley in his new book called THE HAUNTED BOOKSHOP, 'books are the answer to all our perplexities...Yes, books are man's supreme triumph for they gather up and transmit all other triumphs.'" She loved to read when she went on vacation, she did travel. She would take or she would take a suitcase or two of books. She wrote at one point after, I think she made one or maybe more trips to Michigan, and she wrote about how a rainy day was such a gift because she would sit with a pile of books at her elbow and just have a chance to read. A lot of her reading while she was working was snippets of of things. She couldn't read a whole book. And I think that was such a joy for her. She also, I read in a PLAIN DEALER article from 1921, her favorite recreation is tramping around the woods. She likes rivers and fields and hills and meadows.

Laura Maylene Walter (29:05):
I did not know that. I love that so much. Tramping around the woods.

Melissa Carr (29:09):
Yes. I think we should all make sure we make time if it's our thing to tramp around the woods.

Laura Maylene Walter (29:16):
I agree. I agree. And she never married, never had kids.

Melissa Carr (29:20):
No. She was asked by a gutsy female reporter, why did she never marry? The reporter said she looked at her with a glint in her eye and said, oh I, you know, I was too busy. I never had the time. But she was in such good company of so many women who devoted their lives to the Library and library service for all different populations that didn't marry for whatever reason and gave so much. I think after that, after she said no, she didn't have the time, she said something like...oh God, it was so good. She said something about how "we need old maids to do the work that mothers don't have the time to do."

Laura Maylene Walter (30:09):
That's really fascinating. Really fascinating. And yeah, her librarianship was a core reason because she was so devoted to that. And at the time when women got married, got pregnant, they usually didn't work anymore. And so it's hard to imagine she would've had the same career and accomplished all that she did if she had married.

Melissa Carr (30:31):
Yeah, I think she was, this is just my thought, that a lot of things went right. So many women didn't have a chance to have a career. She did.

Laura Maylene Walter (30:43):
And it was quite a career. I read in the dissertation that in 1933 when she was still the chief Librarian, there was a citywide recognition service in honor of her that was not organized by the Library. It was the citizens of Cleveland came together and were basically, you know, we have to honor our librarian because she's amazing. And it was 2,000 people gathered at the Euclid Avenue Baptist Church to celebrate her. And I actually have a poem, please. Should I read it? Yes. I mean we have a lot of listeners who are writers. So this poem is called "Salutations to Linda A. Eastman." It's by Barbara Young and I believe it was published in LIBRARY JOURNAL. It's a poem about Linda Eastman. So I will just read it to you.

Laura Maylene Walter (31:32):
"I Bring you now a dreamer, one whose heart / kept close and pondered over certain fashion / of freeing fettered beauty. One whose eyes / were deep with vision, deep with yearning too, / that all men seeking might come in and find those riches and those graces, which of old / were saved under the scholars and good priests. // I bring you one who dreamed so clear, so true / that all her dreaming like a fertile vine, / the vine well pruned, well tended night and day / in tempest and fair weather, bringeth now / rich vintage to mankind. // Brothers and friends, / the world is weary and the world is sad. / We have great need of dreams that come alive / for without vision shall the people perish. // How gracious to sit by when years are full, / as sits this dreamer hearing in her heart, / men call her "valiant, beautiful, and wise."

Laura Maylene Walter (32:27):
Can you imagine someone writing a poem like that about you, about your professional work? <Laugh>

Laura Maylene Walter (32:32):
It's amazing, and I mean, I think we have to point out some of those lines. I was thinking about it that this was written or published in 1933. So Linda Eastman was the Chief Librarian of Cleveland Public Library as Nazism was rising. And maybe we should talk about that a little bit because she spoke out against the book burnings in Germany in the plane dealer in 1933, I believe it was written by the president of the Board of Education criticizing that congress that college presidents that other people weren't actively protesting and speaking out against this. But people like Linda Eastman and Helen Keller were so she was at that time, you know, politically engaged with what was going on. Do you have a sense of, from your research, just generally what it was like at the Library? You know, during her, I guess final years before she retired, like during that time in the thirties.

Melissa Carr (33:31):
The Great Depression had a tremendous effect on the Library, its staff, its patrons, and everyone else in the country. Funding dropped dramatically. She was forced to cut salaries, reduce our opening hours significantly, spending on books was curtailed and at times, especially in the early thirties, at times, no new volumes were able to be purchased at all. At the same time, our attendance and circulation numbers greatly increased. So we would often have 1,200 people coming in to the Library during the day during the Depression. Circulation was up and she figured out how to manage this and keep morale of staff afloat, which she did. The staff, despite all of these hardships, staff were united with her in doing everything they could to serve the public during the depression. The people were so grateful to the Library for being here and you know, a lot of unemployed men especially who suddenly had nowhere to go during the day, came to the Library to read. And the women in their lives would come and bring home reading materials for them and tell the staff that this was what was keeping their family members going in this terrible time.

Laura Maylene Walter (35:04):
And it is just amazing to think of what she lived through and worked through at the Library. You know, the first World War, the Depression, and when Cleveland was changing so much as a city, it's really amazing in all of the work that she was able to do. Well, one thing I did want to bring up, just because we do have a lot of writers who listen to this podcast, is in the dissertation I had mentioned. There is a quote from Linda Eastman herself talking about writing and one day wanting to write a book. So she did write a book. She wrote a book about William Howard Brett. PORTRAIT OF A LIBRARIAN: WILLIAM HOWARD BRETT, which is, I think, just really keeping with her style of not wanting to write about herself or her own career so much, but she's celebrating this great librarian and his work.

Laura Maylene Walter (35:54):
But she wrote this book and when the first published copy of it reached her, she had this memory from childhood, which is in her words: "I had just finished the very first book I had read through 'all by myself;' with excited pleasure I was hugging the book close and saying, 'when I grow up, I shall write a book.' Well—at long last I have kept that promise." So I love to think of Linda Eastman as a little girl reading her first book all the way through and then thinking, "I want to do this." And she did. And I just think that's really beautiful.

Melissa Carr (36:28):
Agreed. Yes.

Laura Maylene Walter (36:29):
And I think she started writing a memoir, right?

Melissa Carr (36:33):
Yes. It's 15 or so pages. Small, small paper, typed. It's stories of her experiences in the Library.

Laura Maylene Walter (36:43):
Her story is her work, you know, I just think that is who she was. Well, one personal question that I forgot to ask about her that I need to ask you is: what about pets? I know you're a pet lover. Did Linda Eastman have pets?

Melissa Carr (36:58):
So Linda Eastman was living at the time in in 1940, she and her sister and brother moved to a house in Cleveland Heights and she was given a small corgi named Dhu, which she spelled D-H-U, which is the Welsh word for "black" because Dhu had black fur. And we do have a beautiful photograph of her and her sister, Mabel Eastman, who was a kindergarten teacher, in their home with Dhu on her lap. Dhu lived a very long and happy life with the Eastmans. She did die at, I think, about 14 or 15. And a few years later, a collie came into lives. She was called Mitzi. Linda Eastman lived until she was about 95. And she did have failing health in her last few years. And I think Dhu and Mitzi were a huge pleasure for her.

Laura Maylene Walter (38:01):
Aw. When I was a teenager, I had a collie, and so I like to feel a little bit of a connection to Linda Eastman in that way. And by the way, I think I told you this at one point I was writing an email to you, Melissa, and I started to type in the address line, I started to type "Linda Eastman" instead of "Melissa Carr." And I think, you embody her, you know, her intelligence and her devotion to the Library. So I just think it's really fitting that you are handling our Archives here and that you're able to help me with this interview. So I appreciate that. You are such a delightful colleague, you're so friendly to everybody. Do we have a sense of what it was actually like to work for Linda Eastman? Do we know what she was like?

Melissa Carr (38:43):
Well, I should correct you on what you said earlier because she was so many things and so incredible in so many ways that I...

Laura Maylene Walter (38:53):
We won't argue about that right now. Go on <laugh>.

Melissa Carr (38:56):
But I think that she and Brett worked so closely together and I think they had very different personalities. I think he was by many accounts, much more friendly. I think she was probably quite reserved. I believe she was very private like Brett. She was incredibly modest and humble in everything. She was very fair, I think, to everyone on her staff. And when she retired she led a staff of 1,200 people almost. I read somewhere where all of her staff would've said that she was a trusted friend and very fair in all of her interactions with them.

Laura Maylene Walter (39:39):
It's nice to know how celebrated she was and so well respected, because I would imagine for a woman, even for a woman now to be in charge of a large institution, and to maybe, it sounds if she was reserved, maybe not warm and fuzzy. I mean, I don't know, she sounds wonderful to me, but it's nice to know that people really saw the work that she was doing and really respected her. So after she retired, you find her name and many important things at Cleveland Public Library, we of course have the Eastman Branch of Cleveland Public Library. We have the Eastman Reading Garden, which between the Main Library and our Louis Stokes Wing is a beautiful outdoor space that I'm sure a lot of people in Cleveland have been to and know. And it's a wonderful place to sit and read on a beautiful day to listen to some of our concert series. Sometimes in the summer we do events out there. We have art installations with Land Studio every year. So it's a wonderful space in that it bears her name is fantastic. Is there anything you would like to tell us about the reading garden, or do you have a personal favorite memory of being in the garden?

Melissa Carr (40:45):
The garden was named in her honor in 1937. We had a ceremony in September of that year to honor her, let's say a year before she retired in 1938, we had a band play and they actually played "Hail to the Chief" as she walked up to the stage. She had long wanted to have an outdoor reading space. The garden has been through many, many versions. And in 1999, our latest version with Maya Lin's permanent installation, reading a Garden, I think she would be really happy to see what's there now.

Laura Maylene Walter (41:30):
Yeah, and we have pictures from the dedication that I can, so listeners, I plan to link to maybe a blog post that has some pictures of Eastman and, and some photos from that era. So yeah, I just, I love the reading garden. It's one of my favorite parts of the Library. And you know, years before I worked here, I worked elsewhere downtown. And sometimes on my lunch breaks I would walk over and sit in the Library and you know, I feel like I always belonged here in some respect and now I'm here. So that's a gem in downtown Cleveland for sure. Okay, we have been talking for a while and I don't want to keep you too too long. I have a few more questions left, but just more broadly, I know you did a lot of reading about Linda Eastman and we all appreciate that. Are there other tidbits that you came across or quotes or facts? I know I'm just offering up a broad <laugh> option, but anything that you really, really want people to know about Linda Eastman that I haven't asked yet?

Melissa Carr (42:26):
One of the things I most admire about her is her devotion to intellectual freedom. What she most wanted was to meet others' information needs and then exceed them. She had no interest in pronouncing judgment on what people were reading, which was unlike one of our earlier directors and others in library history. She believed that it was important that the Library provide for its patrons, intellectual and recreational needs, whatever they were. I actually was working with some high school students recently who were interested in what she had to say about censorship and about intellectual freedom. And I didn't find a lot for them, but I found this one quote in something that actually a speech she gave in 1927, the British Library Association Conference in Edinburgh, Scotland. She wrote, "It should not be necessary to state that in all its work. The Library is nonpartisan in political matters, impartial on religious questions, and endeavors to have all sides of controversial subjects represented."

Melissa Carr (43:31):
So I think that was what she believed, and that can be seen in every aspect of what the Library does. She wrote, "We sometimes think of the Library as a great kaleidoscopic treasury from which each of the million people we serve may sort out and freely use those intellectual riches for which he has need or desire. One function of the staff is to turn the facets of this kaleidoscope so that they can all be seen and so that each facet may attract those for whom it has interest." Also, in our Archives we have, I didn't mention this, she wrote numerous articles for library publications and we have drafts of various of her articles. We have multiple drafts.

Laura Maylene Walter (44:18):
It's really great for writers to see the edits that she was making.

Melissa Carr (44:24):
We have least two drafts of her farewell address in 1938. And she spends a full half of her speech giving credit to everyone else on the Library staff. She's up there on the stage giving the speech, but she asks her audience to imagine with her a pageant of all of the staff members. She doesn't name them by names, but she, you know, starts with the board of trustees and on on down. So this is in that part of the speech. She had initially written, "...the truck drivers who delivered to the branches daily the books ordered from the Main Library." That was her original version. Then you can see in pencil, she revised it, and she wrote: "...the truck drivers who tour the city daily delivering to the branches the books ordered from the Main Library."

Laura Maylene Walter (45:14):
I love to see the behind the scenes, the changes and the way she enriched it. Oh, and by the way, we didn't even get into how she helped set up the Western Reserve Library School, which we are running out of time. But at the time, listeners there weren't library degrees, and she helped that part of the profession as well as setting up training for future librarians. So she made a huge impact on that as well.

Melissa Carr (45:36):
Yes, thank you.

Laura Maylene Walter (45:39):
You have found a lot of this information in the archives. What can you tell us about your job in the Cleveland Public Library Archives and how could someone, if they're interested in the history at this institution, what kind of things do you have there? How can people learn more?

Melissa Carr (45:54):
What we call our Archives is actually our organizational or institutional archives. So everything that we have in what we call the Archives is related to the development and the history of the Cleveland Public Library. And we have materials dating back to our founding in 1869. So we have correspondents, board proceedings, reports, photographs, architectural drawings, library publications, press clippings, financial records, physical records, scrapbooks and more. The Library also has many other archival collections that are mostly found in our Special Collections department that are about important people and locations and events in Cleveland and beyond that might be of interest to researchers. How about the board of education board member who wrote in 1933 about why were others not speaking up as she and Helen Keller had? He later wrote about Linda Eastman: "The test of her greatness is her deep humility, not the humility that doubts its own power, but the humility characterized by a curious feeling that greatness is not in the individual, but rather through the individual who sees something divine in all the children of men."

Laura Maylene Walter (47:16):
People wrote so eloquently back then too. We're running out of time listeners, but I found just some letters that Linda Eastman wanted to share with the staff at the time about the Christmas tree. And a man wrote in and it was just the most eloquently written thing you've ever seen in your life. And he was also criticizing himself for not being a good writer. And it's just so funny what has changed. You know, that was really fun. But there's so much to cover with Linda Eastman that it's impossible, as I said earlier, to get to all of it. But I would be just curious, Melissa, is there anything you want to share about what her legacy means to you or her work as a librarian? Anything else you want to share about why you admire her so much?

Melissa Carr (48:00):
I have read some of the many testimonials that her contemporaries wrote about her work, and there is so much that I, and they, admired about her: the way that she inspired and united her staff, her devotion to her work and to books and to reading her humility in her leadership, not to mention all the incredible things that she pioneered and accomplished. We are so lucky to have this library and our talented staff and our incredible collections. She played a huge role in that.

Laura Maylene Walter (48:42):
She was buried at Riverside Cemetery on the west side of Cleveland. I have been to her grave. So it is there, if Clevelanders want to go and and pay their respects to Linda Eastman. It's interesting, her grave says, "Linda Ann Eastman" with no E on the "Anne," but everywhere else there's an E. And so there's been some debate of whether that is a mistake or whether legally her name had no E from the Ann. I don't know. What do you think about that? Do you have any theories?

Melissa Carr (49:09):
She was born in Oberlin in 1867. Unfortunately, Oberlin no longer has those records, so we don't know what her certificate said, but she did use Anne with an E throughout her career. It's a mystery.

Laura Maylene Walter (49:29):
One more mystery about Linda Eastman. Melissa, thank you so much for being here. I know you did a lot of research before we chatted, and I can tell how much you respect and admire Linda Eastman, and I do as well. And it has been such a treat learning more from her. I always love taking a step back in time and imagining what Cleveland was like back then, what books and readers were like back then, and librarians. And Linda Eastman is such a powerful, inspiring figure, I would say. So to have you provide more context and information was really helpful and I so appreciate it.

Laura Maylene Walter (50:04):
I will close by reading a paragraph from the dissertation that I mentioned earlier, just a way to kind of wrap up what Linda Eastman was all about:

Laura Maylene Walter (50:15):
"These notable achievements are in large part due to the rare combination of vision, practical wisdom, and personal integrity possessed by Miss Eastman.

Laura Maylene Walter (50:25):
"Her Belief in the importance of education caused her to strive constantly toward quality of book service. She foresaw a library system extending into every part of the city, making books easily accessible to every resident, and she kept her eyes steadily on that goal. She won the respect and affection of every member of her staff and inspired them in attempting to match her distinctive public service."

Laura Maylene Walter (50:51):
So I think public service was really what she was all about. And in honor of Miss Eastman, thank you, listeners for joining us in this conversation. And most of all, thank you, Melissa, for all the work and insight you offered us today.

Melissa Carr (51:07):
Thank you, Laura. This was so much fun. Thank you.

Laura Maylene Walter (51:15):
Page Count is presented by the Ohio Center for the Book at Cleveland Public Library. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, and leave a review for Page Count wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more online or find the edited transcript for this episode at cpl.org/podcast/pagecount. Follow us on Instagram @ohiocenterforthebook or find us on Facebook. If you'd like to get in touch, email ohiocenterforthebook@cpl.org and put "podcast" in the subject line. Thanks for listening, and we'll be back in two weeks for another chapter of Page Count.